


A Sore Back and a Helping Hand

by Macko_99



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Canon Disabled Character, Chronic Pain, Developing Relationship, Domestic, Engineering, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Humor, Lesbian Character, Military Backstory, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Pre-Relationship, prosthetic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2020-01-23 09:55:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18547423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Macko_99/pseuds/Macko_99
Summary: The Orca was flying steady as the people inside felt the adrenaline generated from the mission slowly leaked out of their systems.Fareeha “Pharah” Amari slowly pulled the various pieces of her mark IV Raptora armour off, working off auto-pilot as she looked around social area of the aircraft.Pharah and Symmetra help each other and in the process get to know each other a bit better.





	A Sore Back and a Helping Hand

The Orca was flying steady as the people inside felt the adrenaline generated from the mission slowly leaked out of their systems.

Fareeha “Pharah” Amari slowly pulled the various pieces of her mark IV Raptora armour off, working off auto-pilot as she looked around social area of the aircraft.

Seated directly across from her was Genji and McCree, quietly talking and presumably joking around as two old friends do. From what she could get it involved Hanzo, a lost bet, and a pink tutu.

From her right Pharah could hear the unmistakable sound of soft Swiss curses as Angela “Mercy” Ziegler treated Hana “D.Va” Song who had been injured during the mission using her Meka self-destruct to take care of a Talon Heavy.

Pharah shook her head slightly as D.Va was the third most likely to be injured on a mission, only being beaten by Jack and Genji. Must be something to do with youthful hard-headedness. 

Having finished taking off the upper armour, and placing the final piece in the special case designed to hold it and aid in putting it on, Pharah bent forward to begin taking off the lower armour when she felt a sharp and severe pain run from the base of her spine to her shoulders.

Pharah grit her teeth and tried to suppress the groan that came forward from her lungs. She had been getting these back pains more often lately as the work she was doing with Overwatch was more intensive than her work at Helix Security. Hence, she was in her very high-tech but very heavy armour more often than not.

The pain eventually subsided and Fareeha was about to complete the removal of her armour when she felt a presence in front of her. Looking up she saw the legs, torso and then face of Satya “Symmetra” Vaswani.

Pharah thought she had been talking with Winston in the cockpit with Tracer, though it now seems that she had finished talking and had returned to the common area of the Orca to either relax or continue her role as Watchpoint Security Chief.

“Hey Satya, what’s up?” Fareeha asked after sitting up straight, gritting her teeth at the second spike of pain running up her back.

Satya tilted her head before speaking,

“Those pauldrons are not a user-friendly design, are they?”

“Huh?”

“The top-heavy weight distribution is causing destress on your back.” Satya gestured at the offending pieces of the suit.

Realising what she was talking about Fareeha tried to pass it off, 

“It’s not a big deal, it just flares up when I’m taking the suit off. It goes away after an hour or so. And I don’t want to annoy Angela with it, she has enough on her plate”

Satya narrowed her eyes as if she was judging her for her choices. Fareeha was about to tell her that it wasn’t a problem when Satya spoke again.

“If you do not wish to disturb Angela then perhaps, I may aid you, in return for a small favour.”

Fareeha was taken back by the offer for a second before recovering.

“If you know anything that can help, I’m all for it.” Fareeha answered.

“My past experience with this matter has found that a massage is the most effective, non-medicinal method of treatment.” Satya explained as Fareeha felt her brain short-circuit.

‘A massage? Like me lying naked, face-down, with a towel over my ass, as Satya rubs oil over my back? That type of massage?”

“Though judging by the pauldrons and the nature of your pain I would say a simple shoulder massage would be most beneficial.”

On the one hand Fareeha was disappointed that the massage wouldn’t be as intimate as she hoped. On the other she was glad as a full massage experience may pop one of her blood vessels. 

“That actually sounds pretty nice actually.” Fareeha answered, though she realised that she didn’t ask what Satya would like something in return. 

“What do you need my help with?” 

For the first time since this conversation began, Fareeha noticed that Satya looked slightly embarrassed, despite offering to give her a massage a moment ago.

“My prosthetic is operating at only 96% efficiency, which is unacceptable in terms of my abilities. The repairs required are very fine and precise and I feel you are the most suitable on the watchpoint to carry them out.”

Fareeha almost said that there were more suitable engineers at the Watchpoint, until she realised that Torbjörn and Brigitte were away from the Watchpoint and Winston was probably too busy with organising and the say-to-day running of Overwatch itself. And no one goes to Junkrat unless they are desperate or just want something destroyed.

“I’d be happy to help.” Fareeha answered with a smile.

“Excellent. Tracer said that we would be landing soon at the Watchpoint. Meet me at my quarters thirty minutes after we land.” Satya then sniffed the air then scrounged her nose in slight disgust. “Though perhaps you should shower first.”

Fareeha then remembered that she was not wearing her full armour and the sweaty and oil-covered undersuit was exposed to the air. Wincing she agreed.

Satya thanked her before the Orca landed and the rear door opened. She then nodded and moved towards the exit.

Fareeha’s eyes followed her down before closing them and letting out a breath she didn’t realise she was holding. Fareeha then felt a pair of eyes on her and looked forward, seeing McCree and Genji sporting looks that could only be described as positively smug.

“Not a word.” Fareeha growled out with eyes narrowed.

________________________________________

After securing her suit in the Watchpoint armoury, Fareeha went to her quarters for a quick shower and a change of clothes before setting off towards Satya’s quarters. She takes a quick detour to the Watchpoint washing facilities to drop her undersuit in a washing machine, nodding to Zarya who was already in the laundry room, washing her workout clothes.

Fareeha arrived at Satya’s door with five minutes to spare. She was about to press the outside alert when the door slid open to reveal Satya, still in her mission clothes, though she had taken off her shoes and stockings, and her headset. 

“You are early.” Satya commented as she took stock of Fareeha’s current outfit, consisting of a pair of grey sweatpants and an orange tank-top with the Overwatch symbol emblazoned on the front in white. She also noticed the slightly damp hair from the shower.

“Yeah I shower fast, had to in the army.” Fareeha could feel her face heat up from Satya’s gaze. “Did Athena tell you I was out here?”

Fareeha noticed a slight smirk as Satya pointed up. Fareeha looked up to see one of Satya’s camera-turrets. 

“Ah of course.” Fareeha was then remembered that the beautiful woman in front of her was head of Watchpoint security and her camera-turrets were located all around the base.

“Please come in.” Satya moved to the side to allow Fareeha to enter, which she did.

Fareeha was then reminded that this was the first time she had ever been in Satya’s quarters. Like Fareeha’s and nearly every other agent the quarters had an attached bathroom and small kitchenet for when the agent did not want to go all the way to the cafeteria to eat. 

However, unlike Fareeha’s quarters, which was organised but lived in feel with treasured items such as her vintage electric guitar and her Gundam collection, Satya’s room had a cold and efficient feeling, with hard-light structures as the only decoration.

“So, shall we begin?” Satya announced, breaking Fareeha away from her observations. 

“Oh of course.” Thinking that it would be more polite she offered to fix satya’s prosthetic first.

“I would appreciate that, thank-you.” With that said Satya brought her right arm up to the plates covering her left shoulder. Pressing a few hidden controls, the left arm broke away slightly at the shoulder joint. Satya then grasped the prosthetic with her right arm and with a tug the prosthetic was free from its mounting. Satya then passed the arm to Pharah who nodded in thanks before moving to the desk in the corner which had the necessary tools laid out.

“My own analysis of the problem indicates that the source is a damaged wire in the upper bicep. Currently it is only causing hard-light projection location by one micron, however if it is not repaired immediately the error would increase to one millimetre which may damage projection stability.” Satya explained the problem as Fareeha carefully began to remove the panels covering the bicep.

“That would cause some problems in the field.” Fareeha commented. She could easily tell which wire was damaged due to both the slight fraying and that there were only maybe six visible wires inside the prosthetic. The damaged one was one of the shortest and was connected to what Fareeha assumed was a power source for the projector and to a transducer at the base of the elbow joint.

“The wires short enough that I’m going to just replace the whole thing.” Fareeha then took a pair of needle-nose plyers and slowly pulled the wire out of its mounting, being careful not to damage the wire housings. Removing the wire turned out to be harder than first thought as it appeared stuck, but after holding the prosthetic steady the wire came free.

“You know looking at it the whole prosthetic is a lot simpler than I thought it would be.” Fareeha commented as she cut and prepared a replacement wire.

“Yes, Vishkar designed it to have modular components for easy replacement if necessary. The smallest individual pieces are the connecting wires.” Satya answered as she placed a cup of tea beside Fareeha before sipping at her own.

“Thank-you.” Fareeha sipped her tea before going back to work. In no time the new wire was inserted, and the prosthetic sealed up and ready for use. 

Fareeha helped Satya put the prosthetic back on the shoulder mountings before stepping back and allowing Satya to test that the repairs were successful. After creating a series of simple constructs and a more complex one she stated that the prosthetic was now running at 100% efficiency. 

“Perfect harmony. Thank-you for assistance Fareeha.” Satya said, sounding genuine and with a soft smile on her face.

“Happy to help.” Fareeha answered. She was always glad to help anyone in need.

“Now then. The deal was a shoulder massage so if you could please sit on the edge of the bed.” Fareeha didn’t hide the sigh of relief as she stood and moved to sit on the bed. While the pain did subside a bit, it was still present in the shoulders.

After Fareeha sat down on the bed, Satya moved onto the bed as well and kneeled behind her, giving Satya perfect access to the taller woman’s shoulders.

She then placed her arms on Fareeha’s shoulders and began to slowly and rhythmically rub the offending muscles. Fareeha let out a small moan as Satya began to work on the numerous knots in Fareeha’s back.

“Judging by how many knots you have you must have been having back problems for years now.” Satya commented as she increased pressure to try and work one of the knots out. She was also ignoring the little voice in her head that she was touching the best shoulder muscles she has ever seen.

“Been having them ever since they put me in my first Raptora suit.” 

“How old were you?”

“Just out of the army so twenty-eight.” 

“That is a long time to have back problems.” Satya said, concerned about Fareeha’s future health.

“It only really flares up after I take the suit off and I’ve been wearing it often lately. In Helix I would wear it once every two weeks or maybe once a week max.” 

“Still concerning.”

“Well this is helping.” Fareeha answered, starting to feel a bit light-headed from the relief on her back coming from Satya’s hand movements. 

“Glad to be of use to you.” Fareeha snorted slightly at that as Satya smiled. She worked in silence for the rest of the massage until she finally got the last knot out.

“I think that is all of it.” Satya announced as she leaned back and allowed Fareeha to stand up, which she did though she nearly tripped due to weak legs.

After correcting herself she stretched and for the first time in a while she felt no pain shooting up her back. Sighing she turned back to Satya, who had gotten off the bed and was now standing behind her. “My back feels a million times better, thank-you so much. Is there anything else I can do for you?”

Satya shrugged but was smiling. “Repairing my prosthetic was worth enough. But thank you.”

A few moments passed with both woman staring into each other’s eyes before Fareeha coughed slightly. “Well if I can’t help with anything else how about I treat you to dinner tomorrow night if you’re free. There is a really nice Egyptian restaurant in town if that sounds ok to you?”

Satya was a bit taken back by this, but she recovered quickly. “That sounds perfect.” Fareeha’s hundred-watt smile proved she had said the right thing.

“Awesome, does eight work for you?” 

“Eight is fine.”

“Cool, I’ll see you then.”

With that Fareeha left the quarters and Satya was left smiling until she fell asleep.

The End.

**Author's Note:**

> First time writing Overwatch, hope you enjoyed it. 
> 
> Please leave a comment.
> 
> Note I am neither an engineer or a masseuse, so please forgive me if some of my terms are wrong.


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